Our Story

Pacific Psychiatric Intervention & Wellness Centers (PPIWC) was founded by Drs. Jake and Jessica Hollingsworth in 2015. It was founded under the name Ketamine For Life. In 2019, based on how the clinic evolved over the first three years, specifically, that we have become much more than a “ketamine clinic,” we changed the name to what it is now, PPIWC.

Dr. Jake and Dr. Jessica moved to San Diego in the Spring of 2015. Dr. Jake, having completed 8 years of active duty as an Air Force psychiatrist, and Dr. Jessica preparing to start her residency in Anesthesiology at UCSD, were excited for this next chapter in California. As Dr. Jessica worked toward completing her 3 years of anesthesia training in San Diego, Dr. Jake started an outpatient psychiatric private practice. It didn’t take long for Dr. Jake to realize that he wanted to offer more to his patients than just a quick medication adjustment. Within 6 months of moving to San Diego, the doctors established their own clinic, called Ketamine For Life (KFL), a place where Dr. Jake could administer IV ketamine infusions for depression and pain. Using ketamine for depression and pain has been an extremely valuable and effective treatment modality for patients that are struggling with success from conventional psychiatric treatments. Dr. Jessica’s expertise with the use of ketamine as an anesthesiologist has also been an invaluable asset toward the establishment of KFL’s protocols. Within a year of starting KFL, Dr. Jake consolidated both his existing outpatient practice, and KFL into one office in Del Mar, California. Since the move to Del Mar in early 2017, Dr. Jake added Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), an FDA-approved interventional treatment for depression, which has proven to be a great treatment option for patients that were not helped by traditional psychiatric medication management. Since adding TMS to PPIWC, treatment modalities have continued to be added to our protocols, including our integrative medicine treatment, which you can find out more about on this site, and more recently, we have added Botox as a treatment for depression.

As of March 5th 2019, Janssen Pharmaceutical’s medication, Spravato™, has been FDA-approved for the treatment of treatment resistant depression. Spravato™, also known as esketamine, is an intranasal version of the S-enantiomer of the ketamine molecule that is used currently in our clinic via intravenous infusion. Given that Spravato™ is FDA-approved, it is likely that health insurance will cover the cost of this medication, or at lease a significant portion of it. As these details emerge, we will relay them on to our patients.

Our Mission is, “To offer psychiatric treatments with a new interventional approach for anxiety, insomnia, ADHD, depression, and other mood disorders. Our direct focus is on ketamine infusions and injections, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), Theta Burst Stimulation (TBS), and conservative medication management, specializing in detoxing and de-prescribing. With board-certified expertise, and discrete settings, we help alleviate suffering for ages 18 to 64.” We are cognizant of the need for new treatments to effectively treat mental health disorders and our dynamic practice is always incorporating new treatment modalities as new research in the field of mental health is being done.

PPIWC looks at each patient individually, and tailors the recommended treatment plan based on that patient’s unique circumstances. Not every patient is appropriate for every treatment offered by PPIWC. Some will benefit more from one treatment modality over another. Some patient’s may even feel like PPIWC is not a good fit for them at all.

Being a small, family operated and owned clinic gives us an advantage that some larger organizations do not have, the ability to be flexible with the services that we offer. We are always looking to the future to see what other treatment options might be beneficial for PPIWC’s patients. Because we have experts available in both anesthesia and psychiatry, we are able to provide the latest, most cutting edge treatments in the safest way possible.

PPIWC will continue to grow and expand to meet the growing needs of the patients that haven’t been able to be helped by traditional psychiatric clinics.